John 10

John 10
Fragments of Papyrus 44 (6th/7th-century) containing Matthew 25:8-10; John 10:8-14. Metropolitan Museum of Art 14.1.527, New York City.
BookGospel of John
CategoryGospel
Christian Bible partNew Testament
Order in the Christian part4

John 10 is the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The author of the book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that John composed this Gospel.[1] This chapter records Jesus' description of himself as the "door of the sheep" and the "Good Shepherd", and contains the only mention of Hanukkah, "the Feast of Dedication", in the New Testament.[2]

Text

John 10:1-10 in Papyrus 6, written c. AD 350.

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 42 verses. Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:

Old Testament references

Places

Events recorded in this chapter refer to the following locations:

The true shepherd illustration

In verses 1–5, Jesus uses a parable,[6] illustration[7] or "figure of speech"[8] regarding the manner in which a true shepherd enters his sheepfold, through the door or the gate, unlike the manner of a thief or a stranger. H. W. Watkins notes that "the word rendered 'parable' (in verse 6) is the wider word (Greek: παροιμία, paroimia) which includes every kind of figurative and proverbial teaching, every kind of speech ... which departs from the usual course (Greek: οἶμος, oimos)". The word παραβολα (parabola) is not used in John's Gospel.[9]

Jesus begins:

Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.[10]

The Pharisees are not mentioned in the Greek text (λεγω υμιν,[11] legō humin, "I speak to you") but they are mentioned in the New International Version (NIV) in continuity with John 9:40, where "some Pharisees" had spoken with Jesus. The NIV and the Jerusalem Bible also confirm in verse 6 that the Pharisees are the group Jesus is addressing.[12][13] German Protestant theologian Heinrich Meyer argues that these verses continue from chapter 9 "without the slightest indication of a change having taken place", and that ideally the chapter break would have been inserted at John 9:35.[14] Henry Alford likewise connects this pericope with John 9:35-41.[15]

In this illustration, the true shepherd "enters the sheepfold by the door" and "calls his own sheep by name and leads them out (Greek: ἐξάγει αὐτά)" (John 10:1,3). The alternative way in, taken by the thief or stranger, is to "climb up some other way", i.e. to climb over the wall of the sheepfold.[16] The narrative is introduced "very truly" or "most assuredly".[17] Jesus' audience ("they", verse 6) did not understand what he was saying, and did not understand that he was applying the reference to thieves and robbers (verse 1) to themselves.[13]

In its reference to the shepherd leading the flock out of the sheepfold, verse 3 has the only occurrence in the New Testament of the word ἐξάγει (exagei) ,[18] The Ethiopic version adds "and loves them" to verse 3.[19]

The door of the sheep and the good shepherd

In verse 7, Jesus "feels compelled" to start again (πάλιν, palin).[14] He describes himself here and in verse 9 as "the door of the sheep",[20] and in 10:11 and 10:14 as "the good shepherd". The word in Greek: θύρα is translated as "door" in the King James Version and the American Standard Version, but as "gate" in the New Revised Standard Version, the Common English Bible and other translations.[21] In verse 7, the Textus Receptus adds that Jesus said to them (Greek: αὐτοῖς) but this addition is generally agreed to be "of doubtful authority".[22]

Verse 21

Others said, "These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"[23]

This verse further reiterates the continuity between this chapter and the dialogue following the healing of the man born blind in John 9.[14]

The Feast of Dedication

Verse 22 refers to Hanukkah:

Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter.[24]

The feast (Greek: τὰ ἐγκαίνια, ta egkainia) recalls the Maccabean purification and re-dedication of the Temple, 1 Maccabees 4:36–51. The narrative moves forward from the Feast of Tabernacles, when the events and teaching from John 7:14 to 10:21 appear to take place.[25] During the intervening two months, there is no account of whether Jesus remained in Jerusalem or not. In John 7:40 we read that Jesus "went away again beyond the Jordan". Meyer identifies a number of commentators who have suggested that there was an additional "journey to Galilee or Peraea" before the feast of dedication, although he himself considers that these suggestions are "dictated by harmonistic presuppositions and clumsy combinations, ... and not by the requirements of exegesis".[14]

Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch or colonnade,[26] a gathering place used by the early church (see Acts 3:11 and 5:12) located on the eastern side of the temple.[27]

The believers beyond the Jordan

The chapter ends with Jesus evading Jewish attempts to stone him (John 10:31,39) and then leaving Jerusalem (John 10:40) and traveling "beyond the Jordan to the place where John was baptizing at first" (Perea). Matthew 19:1 and Mark 10:1 similarly record that Jesus traveled "to the region of Judea by the other side of the Jordan", but in the synoptic tradition He had previously been in Capernaum rather than Jerusalem. Perea was a region where many people "came to the decision that He was the Messiah" (John 10:42 in the Living Bible translation).

See also

References

  1. ^ Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 2012.
  2. ^ Halley, Henry H. Halley's Bible Handbook: an Abbreviated Bible Commentary. 23rd edition. Zondervan Publishing House. 1962.
  3. ^ Aland, Kurt; Aland, Barbara (1995). The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. Erroll F. Rhodes (trans.). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-8028-4098-1.
  4. ^ a b c "Biblical concordances of John 10 in the 1611 King James Bible".
  5. ^ Kirkpatrick, A. F. (1901). The Book of Psalms: with Introduction and Notes. The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges. Vol. Book IV and V: Psalms XC-CL. Cambridge: At the University Press. p. 839. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
  6. ^ John 10:6, King James Version and Authorised Version
  7. ^ John 10:6, New King James Version and God's Word Translation
  8. ^ John 10:6, English Standard Version
  9. ^ Watkins, H. W. (1905), Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers on John 10, accessed 17 May 2016
  10. ^ John 10:1: New International Version
  11. ^ John 10:1: Westcott-Hort New Testament
  12. ^ John 10:6: NIV
  13. ^ a b Jerusalem Bible (1966), Footnote b at John 10:6
  14. ^ a b c d Meyer, H. A. W. (1880), Meyer's NT Commentary on John 10, translated from the German sixth edition, accessed 25 May 2019
  15. ^ Alford, H., Greek Testament Critical Exegetical Commentary - Alford on John 10, accessed 12 August 2022
  16. ^ John 10:1: Amplified Bible
  17. ^ John 10:1: NKJV
  18. ^ Englishman's Concordance, accessed 18 May 2016
  19. ^ Gill, J., Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible on John 10, accessed 18 May 2016
  20. ^ John 10:7: NKJV
  21. ^ Translations accessed at BibleGateway.com
  22. ^ Plummer, A., Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on John 10, cf. Watkins, H. W., Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers on John 10, both accessed 24 May 2016
  23. ^ John 10:21: NKJV
  24. ^ John 10:22: NKJV
  25. ^ Benson, J., Benson's Commentary on John 10, accessed 25 May 2019
  26. ^ John 10:23: NKJV
  27. ^ Plummer, A., Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on John 10, accessed 15 August 2022. Note Plummer's reference to John 5:12 is errorneous
Preceded by
John 9 		Chapters of the Bible
Gospel of John 		Succeeded by
John 11